What is a landing page anyway?

I am often asked what a landing page is and how it differs from a website.  The simple answer is that a landing page is the page YOU visit when you click on a search result.  Maybe the easiest way to explain it is that a landing page is the opposite of a home page –where you have lots of choices for what you want to do next.

2 types of landing pages:

1. Internal website page: If you are in Google looking for a particular item and you click on a result in the searches – that click takes you to the “landing page.” And more often than not, we land on internal pages of websites rather than the home page.   Those internal pages are considered landing pages.
2. Targeted landing page: These pages are specifically designed to catch traffic from a particular campaign and will usually have a very specific offer.  They may even look quite different from the rest of the website.

Good Landing Pages Will Have:

1. Very specific offer for a very specific product.
2. Limited or even no choices for navigating around
3. Clear calls to action specific to the offer
4. Limited text / writing
5. Graphics and messages the company wants to test for performance

Good Websites Will Generally Have:

1. Good navigation making it easy to find what you need
2. Lots of opportunities to learn more with internal linking
3. Multiple messages for different audiences
4. Lots of good text for users
5. Standard company branding.

If you are still not sure what a landing page would look like you can review some of our recent work.  This should help you quickly understand the differences between websites and landing pages.

Recent examples of landing pages:

www.threeriversair.com

www.lunalullabyproducts.com

www.yourlouisianahomebuilder.com

Landing pages – great for paid search

Perhaps the best use of landing pages are for paid search advertising.  That way you can control the type of traffic that comes to your page and test the messages for their impact.

For more information on landing page design and what it can do for your business please contact us today.

Website Content 2010

Is there anything worse than clicking on a site to find it was last updated in 2007?  If you answered YES to this question, than you are now one step closer to becoming an “SEO Expert with a Real Job” and learning a little something about what drives internet marketing.

Web users in 2010 are really getting savvy.  This makes it even more important to have content on your website that is either useful, interesting, informative, funny, or all of the above.

In this installment in our “SEO Explained” series we will take a look at why you should be creating content and practical tips for how you can implement it on your website.

So People with Real Jobs Can Understand, Please

Like meta data, SEO types like to over complicate the content issue.  Want to learn about keyword density, long tail phrases or keyword relevance?  Forget it.

The “secret sauce” to creating good content that web users want to read has more to do with being recently created and interesting to read than anything else.

Why Should You Care?  Because Google Says So!

Google has done an incredible job of protecting their methodology for how search results are displayed.  However in this case they are handing us the playbook and telling us exactly what we need to be doing!  The snipped from Google’s Webmaster Central pretty much sums it up:

And, as if you needed more than just Google’s guidance, take a look around the web and see what the most popular sites (according to Alexa) that are not search engines:

1. Facebook
2. You Tube
3. Wikipedia
4. Biadu
5. Blogger

What do they all have in common?  Content.  The popularity of these sites is driven by content that is being updated on a regular basis.

What Can and SHOULD You Be Doing

Getting excited about writing is a bit like making a commitment to losing weight – it sounds great for the first 2 weeks and then it eventually gets pushed to the back burner.

I talk to website owners everyday who have made a few blog posts or done a video but never stayed with it.  And they are frustrated because the little they did do has not yielded results.  And the best thing you can do if you want to build content on your website is to start making time daily or weekly for it.

6 Practical Tips for Creating Content and Sticking To It:

1. Find a subject you are passionate about or have an area of expertise.
2. Budget some time daily to write or create content
3. Create a content plan that has a schedule of topics for 3-4 months so you don’t have to remember what to write about.
4. Use free tools such as Google’s Wonder Wheel to see what other topics people are interested in
5. Shoot for articles of 350 -600 words.  No thesis or doctoral papers necessary!
6. Share your work on social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linked In where you are already participating.

No Excuses

For those of you who hate writing, are seriously limited on time or simply aren’t creative there is hope.  You can easily find writers out there who will learn your story and help you tell it to the world.  You can find everything from high school students to seasoned writers with web experience who are out there ready to help.

Turn Browsers Into Customers

One of the things we often do with clients is look at their websites to see what can be done in order to improve the number of people who take the action you want them to. We call these actions “conversions” which basically means people didn’t just surf your site – they actually did what you asked them to do.  This might be make a phone call, buy an item, email you, sign up for a newsletter, send something to a friend.

Whatever the conversion goals you define for set for your website, there are a few things you can do that will help no matter what the goal.

4 Tips for Improving Website Conversion:

Tip 1: Phone number & email in an easy to find place to find

As simple as this sounds it’s often overlooked.  How many times have you visited a website and had to look hard to find out how to contact them?  Remember there are countless millions of websites out there and the attention span of a web surfer is short – so make sure your phone number and contact info are easy to find.

Our suggestion – put the phone number and email address in the top right of your website.  Make sure to put the phone number in text and not an image file so mobile users can click on it.

Tip 2: Offer A Unique Selling Proposition

Chances are your website is not the only place to find information on the products or services you sell.  And with so many choices online it has never been more important to establish a “Unique Selling Proposition” that differentiates you from everyone else.

Our suggestion – spend time thinking about one single, credible sentence that describes why someone should choose you over your competition.  And make sure web visitors can see that easily on your site.

Tip 3:  Create Special Offers

Face it – who doesn’t love a special deal?  For online users it’s really easy to hit the “Back” button and leave your site.  So while you have them there, offer them something special.  A special price, special offer, special private information, a whitepaper – whatever you can think of.

Our suggestion – identify a compelling “special offer” and make sure web visitors can find it.

Tip 4: Update old information

I recently came upon a client whose website proudly proclaimed he had been in business from 1956-2006.  I told the store owner I was sorry to hear he had been out of business for 3 years since it was 2010.  Don’t give your customers the impression that they are visiting an outdated website with obsolete information.

Our suggestion – make sure your information is up to date as web searchers are generally  looking for relevant, recent information.

We can help

There is a lot more to a good website than just flashy design work.  If you would like to learn more about internet marketing skills which can help you convert more customers please contact us today.

2 sides to the story

• staying updated on news
• connecting with friends
• killing time
• research
• be entertained

And the study shows that is exactly the case. Sadly, killing time ranks as the #1 reason to go online. Followed closely by educating yourself, connecting with others and research.

So what does this mean?

So what does this mean for folks who want better performance out of their website?

The answer is simple – QUIT SELLING AND START TEACHING!

What this survey drives home is the fact that people, for the most part, don’t go online with the intention of buying things. They go online with the intention of learning something. Maybe it’s about your product or maybe its about a problem that your product may solve. But in either case they are NOT looking to find out how great you are when they first go online.

Givers Gain

The best advice for building a website is to give away as much of your knowledge and expertise as you can in hopes of helping consumers learn more about what you do. The more people you help by providing them with information the better chance you stand of converting them into a customer.

Think about it – isn’t that how YOU like to use the internet? We want to learn about how to fix YOUR problems and needs, then maybe look at some vendors who can help. Chances are you will check them out online before calling or making a purchase.

So if you can provide the information needed in step one of the online search behavior you stand a better chance of keeping someone with you through the natural cycle which happens with online